Do Black Holes Grow Along With the Universe? A New Study Says Yes

A new study suggests that black holes can expand alongside the universe, challenging the idea that they are immune to the universe's expansion. The study, by Valerio Faraoni and Massimiliano Rinaldi, uses mathematical models to show that black holes formed in the early universe would expand at the same rate as the cosmos. This challenges the Eddington limit, which suggests that black holes should not grow as large as observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The researchers tracked the apparent horizon of a black hole, finding that it expands at the same rate as the universe. This implies that supermassive black holes may not have formed through gas consumption alone, but rather through the expansion of the universe itself. The findings could explain the presence of supermassive black holes in infant galaxies, which should not have formed under normal conditions. The study also suggests that the expansion of the universe could explain the existence of black holes in the "upper mass gap," where stellar evolution predicts they should not form. The theory is testable and could provide evidence in the future.

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